(April
6) - Pompei
is the second most visited archaeological
site in Italy after the Colosseum in Rome. As
such, it is subject to quite a pounding, all in
addition to the natural ravages of time. The site
is, quite naturally, on the
UNESCO World Heritage List and last year received
50 million euros from the European Union to help
finance a conservation project. None of that has
helped in recent weeks as there has been an almost
daily rash of crumbling of various bits and
pieces, large and small. Now, the Italian
aerospace firm, Finmeccanica, which provides
advanced electronics to the military, has said it
will donate technology for a project called
"Pompeii: Give it a Future." The technology
includes upgrades to security systems and
satellite monitoring in order to assess "risks of
hydrogeological instability" at the 44-hectare
site (108 acres); the project is expected to last
three years.

(April
6) - The
Davis Cup matches are still going on today in
Naples between Italy and Great Britain (or as
Mussolini said, "Perfidious Albion"). They started
on Friday, a dark and stormy afternoon if ever there
was one, but the weather has changed for the better.
They built a splendid tennis court down at the
seaside along via Caracciolo, and I have run into
British tourists who have come all this way to see
the matches. I don't know who is winning/has already
won/will win, but according to the local papers,
Italy is doing very well and has a few episodes of
robust tennis hooliganism to support that. I haven't
checked the British papers; their mileage may
differ. I don't know too much about tennis except
that they use a ball larger than the one used in
ping-pong. (Those of you accustomed to reading
scripts that run right to left may choose to think
of it as pong-ping.) Also, points are
awarded to players who grunt a lot. (If you listen
to only the sound-track of a tennis match, it's like
eavesdropping on a Klingon honeymoon.) The Davis Cup
is named for Dwight Filley Davis (1879-1945, image,
right) a Harvard lawn-tennis player who endowed his
fortune to a sport (in his words) "that will have a
more complicated scoring system than Aztec
hand-ball." Imagine, you win the first two points of
a tennis match and you are suddenly ahead 30-love
(very hip players are encouraged to write "luv!")
A typical tennis line score runs 6-1, 6-4, 312-310,
d4 Nf6-E=MC2. Oh, recall that the
half-time shows at Aztec hand-ball matches consisted
of decapitating those players found not to have
grunted enough in the first half.

(April 9) - Forget crocuses
on the wing and robins coming back to Cappuccino --
the goats have finally shown up on Capri, which means it's
spring. They generally hang out on the rocks on the
Anacapri side of the
island, beneath Monte Solaro or above the sea near
the string of forts along
the western end of the island. They love to lick the
salt sprayed up onto the rocks. Some sources may say
that the animals are "wild" and indigenous to the
island. That is not quite accurate. These animals
are not Capra aegagrus, the true wild goat;
they are the domesticated goat subspecies, Capra
aegagrus hircus, serving as the source of our
parchment and wine jugs (whichever came first, as if
you didn't know!) for 10,000 years. So to say that
they are "wild goats" is misleading if you mean they
are part of the indigenous fauna in the same sense
as the various bird or lizard species. The goats
have just been husbanded on Capri for a very, very
long time (and, believe me, that has midwifed a lot
of terrible puns). The goats that seem wild, like
the rotten kids hanging out on the rocks (photo) are
feral animals, great-grandkids of those who just
walked off the reservation some years ago. (Goats
are like cats in that respect; they revert to the
wild very rapidly. My source in Anacapri, a good
kid, says, "They all belong to somebody, or at least
used to.") At one time, centuries ago, the raising
of goats on Capri was in the hands of those old-goat
Carthusian monks (the monastery may still be
visited) who produced valued cheeses from the milk.
The island, itself, may have been named 'Capri' in
honor of the goats -- caprae in Latin
(alternatives: from the ancient Greek, kapros-'wild
boar, or from the Etruscan word for 'rocky.'
They are generally viewed as benevolent little
creatures because besides providing milk, cheese
and, alas--sniff, even meat, they munch away the
undergrowth that is fuel for brush fires. (That is
called "conservation grazing," although the goats
just call it "food.") There is actually a painting
called Herding goats, Capri, by Teodoro
Duclere (1816-1867) that Christie's sold for
£20,000. (Rip-off. You can barely see the goats).

(April 21) - Today is Easter
Monday, known endearingly in Italian as
"Pasquetta"- Little Easter. Interestingly, it is one
of the most chaotic holidays in Italy, in a secular
sort of way-although it celebrates a passage in the
New Testament. I have checked, and almost no one
knows the story. It is
here-plus an update.

(May
6) - Today is the
anniversary of the Hindenburg airship
disaster. On May 6, 1937, the German
passenger airship LZ 129, Hindenburg,
caught fire and was destroyed during an
attempt to dock with its mooring mast at the
Naval Air Station in Lakehurst, New Jersey.
Of the 97 people on board (36 passengers and
61 crewmen), there were 35 fatalities.
Remarkably, in spite of the spectacularly
lethal-looking explosion seen in newsreels
and photography of the day (photo, right),
more than half of the crew and passengers
survived the crash. The Hindenburg,
the largest craft ever to fly (245
meters/800 feet long), was held aloft by
hydrogen, notoriously flammable; whatever
the cause -- static electricity, sabotage,
etc., when a spark hit the hydrogen, the
ship exploded. Airship enthusiasts may wish
to remember that the most lethal crash of an
airship was the USS Akron (ZRS-4),
filled with non-flammable helium(!).
It went down in a thunderstorm off the coast
of New Jersey on the morning of 4 April
1933, killing 73 of her 76 crewmen and
passengers. This accident was the largest
loss of life for any airship crash.
Hindenburg-type craft were "rigid" airships;
that is, the shape conformed to a rigid
internal air-frame, as opposed to simply
the shape of a filled airbag (like a
balloon). They were commonly called
Zeppelin after the German designer of
the first models. In any event, the
Hindenburg disaster ended the "age of
airships," behemoths of the air that
transported you in leisurely fashion on
trans-Atlantic cruises (about 3 days,
east-to-west). That age had started in 1900
and, in earnest, in WWI. There is a strange,
almost unknown episode that connects these
gigantic aircraft to the city of Naples.
(You may read about that at this link.)
(Also, a related item
here.)

Full disclosure!This guy
is my next-door neighbor! He writes good poetry,
some of which you may read
here. Giacomo also takes great photos and
has just published La mia Napoli (My
Naples, ed. Arte tipografica, Naples, 2014), a
collection of 74 photographs of his city. They
are stunning, if I do say so for him! Actually,
they are. Format: A4 soft glossy cover, all
photos also full-page A4. In other words,
they're big. Easily frameable if you want to rip
the book apart, but maybe you shouldn't do that.
Pleasantly, there are no photographic clichés in
this thing! There are things you've seen before,
yes, but it's the same thing with his poetry--it
all looks new.

If you've never been here,
it doesn't look like this yet.

(May 26) SNAFUS & FUBARS
& Dreams (oh, my!) -- Two
most egregious examples of urban planning. One
concerns the State Road
145 on the way out to Sorrento and the new
3-km tunnel that by-passes the coast road, a
scenic stretch that has always been a pleasure
to drive when there is no traffic (say, at 3.30
a.m. on a Sunday morning in February). It has
overrun estimated cost and opening dates many
times. It is now guaran-damn-teed to open this
summer. Small caveat: only for cars. Due to
structural considerations, there will be no TIR
traffic (International Road Transports); that
is, those large cab+trailer rigs that are always
in front of you. Thus, that traffic will still
plod along the coast. The good news: you can
beat them by going through the tunnel. That
bucolic beach stretch? It was a nice idea.) (See
this later update
and this one.)
Number two: When the whole metro line is
finished, there will be three main hubs: the
main train station (now open); the airport (not
started!), and Piazza Municipio (finally, a
station in the middle of town, near the port--5
years behind schedule). Problem: the over-hyped
architects of that station overlooked an
old Angevin wall running along the sea; the wall
separated the old port from the castle (Angevin Fortress).
They didn't know it was there, hiding
underground right where the plans call for
tracks to pass. Not to worry, say planners. Back
to the drawing board and it will only cost lots
of money and take a lot of time. The dreams?
On May 31 at the Royal Continental Hotel, The
Fifth Edition of the "Urban Conviviality
Prize," will display 20 proposed designs
for a new Naples waterfront. They range from
Aqualand parks to gardens, boat harbors and, my
favorite -- a beach (artists rendition, image
above). That's right, turn the seaside of via
Caracciolo into a large beautiful beach with
lots of white, virgin sand like you see in
National Geographic. All you need is sand and virgins.

(May 30)Speaking of
dreams and those that come to naught, the
Bagnolifutura corporation, founded ten years ago
in a burst of enthusiasm for the future of one
of the seediest bits of urban blight in Italy,
was officially declared defunct, bankrupt,
kaputt by the Neapolitan courts yesterday. It
isn't clear, at least to me, what this means for
the future disposition of the properties. I have
written 10 or so separate items on Bagnoli in
these pages--some optimistic, some skeptical.
They are under "Bagnoli" and "Bagnoli, future
of" in the B section of the main index. Click here.

(June 6) The Naples Teatro
Festival Italia 2014 starts its seventh
edition tonight with an open-air performace of
the Vertigo Dance Company from Israel performing
on the premises of the National Railway
Museum in Pietrarsa, near Naples (photo,
right). The weather is expected to be splendid!
The festival ends on June 22 and will bring to
the city thirty shows, featuring works by
Chechov, the Argentinian Marcelo Savignone and
the Latvian Rimas Tuminas plus a tribute to Eduardo De Filippo
thirty years after his death. In addition
to the site at Pietrarsa, the festival will
stage two other shows in locations other than
theaters, one of which will be Manlio
Santanelli's Per Oggi non Si Cade
[roughly: For today at least, nothing will
fall] under the direction of Fabio
Cocifoglia. The performance will be installation
art, with the audience following as if on a
museum tour. They will have audio guides that
let them listen and will able to look at videos
and installations. The story is intriguing: for
one day God decides to remove gravity in Naples
and the rubbish bags that normally litter the
sttreets hang over the city. That's enough to
make a theater-goer of me!

(June 6)This
delightful little building is the Church
of the Incoronata on via Medina near
Piazza Municipio and the city hall. (You may
read a brief history here.)
The "sunken" appearance is due to the fact that
the building is now well below the modern street
level. The Incoronata was built in the
1300s and a century or so later they started
raising the roads in that part of town. As you
may read at that link, the church has had
somewhat of a checkered history, at one point
disappearing entirely beneath overlaid masonry
of newer construction. Some years ago they
decided to dig it out and restore it. One such
episode of restoration led to use of the
building as a small exhibit hall about seven or
eight years ago, such as the one described here. It was
closed again a number of months ago for further
restoration; it has now been reopened and may be
visited. It comes as a pleasant surprise at the
beginning of the summer that this site is open
again. It is right across the street from other
ongoing work, the dismantling of the Neptune Fountain,
one of the most famous of the "traveling
waterworks" of Naples. Neptune is in the process
of being moved just a few yards away, very close
to where it was when it built. All of this in
preparation for the opening of the new Piazza Municipio
metropolitana station.

(June 11)The
local fish-wrapper ran an article
yesterday entitled “Count Dracula died in
Naples.” They ran it with a photo (right)
(though not identifying it as such) of the
infamous Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia
(1431–1477), also known to those who knew and
loved him (not the same persons) as Vlad the
Impaler, member of the House of Draculesti, and
known by his patronymic, Dracula. He was the
inspiration for Bram Stoker's 1897 novelof
that name. Those making the claim that the
Drakman died and was buried in Naples are not
teenaged TV vampire groupies, no indeed (though
they are bound to start showing up sooner or
later). They are scholars from the University of
Tallinn in Estonia, who claim to have
documents—although they have not produced any.
They were last seen snooping around the church
of Santa
Maria la Nova, in the courtyard,
near a tomb that has some very interesting
markings on it (photo, above, left. Actually, it
really does resemble a dragon—the source
of the name Dracula.) According to
traditional sources,Vlad was supposedly killed
and entombed at a monastery in Romania in 1477,
but they say that later inspection of the tomb
found it empty! Heh-heh... Of course,
it was empty, you fools![But
see below, item for June 13.)

(June 12)Oplontis
is the least-known archaeological site
between Naples and Mt. Vesuvius. Compared to
Pompei and Herculaneum, it is practically
unknown. Yet, it is worth a visit (see this link to the main
entry). The newspapers now lament the fact that
a long-awaited archaeological museum for the
site has yet to even get started (!) in spite of
all the declarations of good intention by those
holding the purse strings. If there is no
museum, then there is no place to exhibit the
stuff and it sits in a warehouse and
gathers dust—one, two, three. Even worse, an
entire collection of marble statuary, amphora,
mosaics, and gold jewelry is about to leave town
as a traveling exhibit. It is part of the
so-called “Oplontis Project,” brain-child of US
professor, John Robert Clark, currently
directing excavations in Villa B of the Oplontis
site. The exhibit, entitled “Leisure and Luxury
in the Age of Nero. The Villas of Oplontis” will
be on display at four different universities in
the US, at least through 2015. I said “Even
worse,” but maybe it's not so bad. The
indifference on the part of authorities to the
site at Oplontis is unbelievable. Maybe if they
see it all being carted away...

(June 13)Dracula
update! My one-woman research team, Selene
Salvi (she is to information as Godzilla is to
Tokyo) reports back with devastating news for my
gullible little heart; to wit, the item from
June 11 (two up from this entry) is baloney,
dingo's kidneys, bilge, a crock. But there is
hope! Yes, Dracula's Daughter! (And I don't mean
the 1936 Universal Studios horror film (film
poster, right). As far as I know, that was
fiction. I'm taking about the real deal! (Selene
calls my attention to a small volume, Il
lupo e la cometa. Breve inquisizione su Maria
Balsa (The Wolf and the Comet, a Brief
Inquiry into Maria Balsa, by Mario Ciola,
ed. Telemaco, Acerenza, 2012), and then by
extension, to other and much older works and
then to the mysterious cathedral of Acerenza
(near Potenza in the Basilicata region of
Italy), in which crypts are adorned with all
manner of medieval demons, devils, and dragons!
One such crypt (from 1524) contains the remains
of the lord of Acerenza, Giacomo Alfonso Ferillo
and his bride, Maria Balsa. Based on a 1666
(hmmm—suspicious number!) book entitled Of
the Dragona Family speculation arose that
Maria Balsa was from the Balkans and, indeed,
none other than a princess and, even worse, the
daughter of Vlad III, the Impaler—Dracula! Long
story short, that, too, has been debunked for a
variety of reasons, not the least of which is
that a Balkan princess whose father (Vlad) had
been excommunicated(!) could hardly have
traveled to Italy and been welcomed into a good
Roman Catholic noble family. There are also a
great number of genealogical inconsistencies,
all grist for the mill of the author of The
Wolf and the Comet. The book was promoted
by the town of Acerenza. Apparently the good
Aceruntini (yes, that's what they're called) got
tired of people dropping by just to find the
tomb of Dracula's Daughter. Some people just
have nothing better to do than look for tombs
with dragons on them, which probably means only
that the encrypted was a member of the Societas
Draconistarum, the Order of the Dragon, a
chivalric order founded in 1408. (Something like
the Knights Templar.
Tough customers, they say. Think nasty Masons.)

(June 13)The
remodeled breakwater at the Diaz
Circle on via Caracciolo is already known
as "i baffi"—the mustache (see
photo, right, if you have any questions!).
The drooping bits on both sides of the
original were added a
couple of years ago for boats taking part
in the America's Cup regatta. The
extensions lengthened the rocks
considerably—not a bad idea, since on the
west (left) you have a mooring for small
fishing boats, and on the right a public
beach. There is now more space to go for
your Sunday rock-stroll! (Besides, it's
cute. Look at the green eyes (two
fountains) across the street. The bridge
of the nose is a giant statue of Armando Diaz.) Now
they want to trim the mustache, remove the
"droops." Well, city hall actually likes
the new configuration. The problem is
with Giorgio Cozzolino, the new
superintendent of everything that has to
do with architecture, archaeology, natural
and historical monuments, art and
ethnoanthropology. And breakwaters. It
seems that the original deal called for
the breakwater to be restored to the
original configuration after the America's
Cup was over. It's still there and Giorgio
says he is seeking a court order to force
the city to comply. I can see the mustache
from where I live. From my view, it's more
of a handlebar! (Sort of 1890-ish, which
is when the original was built, by the
way. So in my humble ethnoanthropological
opinion...) I like it.

Storm
damage to the Botanical Gardens
in Portici is
'incalculable.' (photo,il
Mattino)

(June 17)The Bay of Naples
is not exactly "tornado alley," but every few
years we get a twister that would just be a
fierce water spout if it stayed at sea.
Yesterday, one moved inland and caused severe
damage but, fortunately, no loss of life. I
actually saw this thing forming, a funnel
trailing down out of a great cloud mass over the
eastern part of the bay about halfway between
Naples and Vesuvius. By the time I had run home
to get a camera, it had moved inland and then
west towards the city, where it brought massive
flooding, heavy hail, uprooted trees, and downed
traffic signals and tram power lines. It struck
hard up on the Vomero hill above where I live.
It had touched down first at Portici, site of the
former Bourbon Palace, currently the Agriculture
department of the University of Naples and
devastated (some sources say "destroyed") one of
the most important botanical gardens in Italy.
The garden opened in 1872 and even survived the
ravages of WWII as Allied and Axis armies moved
right through the area. The Botanical Garden
built up an important repository over the years
of botanical species from all over the word. The
director says the losses are incalculable.
Heavily wooded parks at the higher elevations of
the city, such as the Floridiana
and the Capodimonte
Wood have been closed until further notice
while the damage is assessed.

(photo credit, left: Fulvio Salvi)

photo by Piedi
per la Terra

(June 25)This is
remarkable—a summer camp for children in one
of loveliest and greenest imaginable places, and it
is in Naples! Specifically, this place here. The
camp and many other activities for children are
promoted by Piedi per la Terra (Feet for the
Earth), a non-profit social organization.
Paraphrased from their literature:

Since 1998 we have promoted environmental education
and activities for children. They play with nature
and science in true hands-on surroundings,
experimenting with their sense of creativity,
getting valuable experience and learning how to
cooperate with one another.

The camp is for ages 3 to 12 and is run "day
camp"; that is, from 8.30 am to 4.30 p.m with
activity themes changing weekly. This year there are
10 sessions, from mid-June through mid-September.
You sign your kid up on a weekly basis, for one or
for all ten, from How a Farm Works to Our
Tree Planet to The Chicken is My Friend
and one that I might sign up for (!) that will teach
me how to make toys from recycled products.

(June 25)OK, I'm
impressed. Yacht-watching season swings into
high gear. That thing in the middle is the Eos (the
Greek Goddess of dawn and large boats). Eos is
a three-masted Bermuda-rigged schooner. She is one
of the largest private sailing yachts in the world,
and some say the largest if you count the bowsprit.
Built by the Lürssen yard in Bremen, Germany, the
ship was launched in 2006. As of 2009 the Eos is
the property of movie and media billionaire Barry
Diller, husband of fashion designer Diane von
Fürstenberg. Overall length (of the ship, not Diane
von Fürstenberg) measures approximately 305 feet
(92.92m). Naval architecture by Langan Design;
Interior design: François Catroux. If you are in the
mood to quibble over bowsprits (and who isn't?),
other contenders for longest private tubs are here. Other
stats: beam (i.e. the ship's breadth at its widest
point) 44.29 ft (13.50 m); Propulsion: Twin screw
with 2 × 2,333 hp (1,740 kW) MTU diesel engines
(HEY! They have sails AND engines?! and I'm not
counting the 56 galley slaves--ok, I made that one
up!); Speed: 16 knots (30 km/h) maximum; Complement:
16 guests, approx. 21 crew. Aluminum hull and
superstructure. Barry and Dianne were here overnight
and left early this morning. A shame. I wanted to
swim out for a pizza. (Oops, they came back a few
days later and docked at Mergellina. Here's a better
view--)

And more
important stats:

-IMO
: 9377456 -MMSI: 319087000
-Call Sign: ZCPM3 -Gross
Tonnage: 1517 t
Summer DWT: 242 t
Flag: CAYMAN ISLANDS (KY) (or maybe Kentucky)
Home port: GEORGE TOWN (Two words! Cayman
islands.)
Oh, gross tonnage (GT) relates to a ship's
overall internal volume. It is based on the
moulded volume of all enclosed spaces of the
ship. Do NOT(!) confuse this with gross register
tonnage, deadweight tonnage, compensated gross
tonnage, displacement, or summer deadweight
tonnage (DWT), which is the sum of the crew,
passengers, stores, fuel, lubricant and cargo
when the ship floats at the summer load line,
which is at the middle of the Plimsoll mark.
(Also see Boats of the
Bay)